And now it's time for a feel-good quote from Susan Sarandon: "I wouldn't want to be 20 now. I know so much more, and I'm much more comfortable in my skin, saggy as it is."

Not that the actress has ever betrayed any hint of such "sag" anywhere about her person. But hey! Sarandon, 64, Sigourney Weaver, 61, and Jane Fonda, 72, are all featured on the cover of V's new "Who Cares About Age?" issue. The magazine features profiles, fashion spreads, and features related to subjects aged 31-87 — including everyone from Iman, 55, to China Machado, "into her 70s," to Lucian Freud, 87. (We haven't seen the issue yet, but based on various online previews, it seems like Freud may be the only, or one of very few, older men in the magazine. It's annoying that it's still assumed that age and ageing are issues of concern only to women.)

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Weaver's cover has her wearing a baseball cap. Hot.

Also, are you a young lady who has been duped by the fashion and beauty industries into spending your precious time and brain cells worrying about the diameter of her pores? Susan Sarandon would like to tell you to relax. "You're at the peak of your physical beauty right now! Just enjoy it and stop worrying about your thighs being too big." Besides, "If you're upset with how you look at 25, life's going to be tough."

These magazine covers have obviously been retouched — but it's kind of nice that they at least they gesture at the existence of their subjects' wrinkles. There's a suggestion of the real texture of skin there. Normally when non-20-somethings get on ladymag covers, they are styled and Photoshopped into plastic simulacra of youth.

I note in passing that — unlike when V did a "Size" issue — the magazine did not choose to put a very young actress on its "Age" cover for purposes of comparison.

Get it? Because Sidibe's big. And V, um, loves her. Still, Sidibe continues her long streak of …
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Is this supposed embrace of "older" women a shallow ploy intended to appeal to Baby Boomer vanity? Yes. Does it reflect the fact that women in the 50s and 60s are, relatively speaking, a wealthy and underexploited target market for fashion brands? Of course. But a 64-year-old woman wearing nothing but jewelry on the cover of an American fashion magazine is still a refreshing sight.